Shift Happens (Shifter Lords #10)

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Two beasts lived inside me. One wanted to heal, the other wanted to kill. The object of my current murderous desires sat on the opposite side of the desk, one ankle crossed over his knee.

He was wearing navy and brick-red argyle socks, which should have been ridiculous, but the well-tailored suit he wore had me in a tongue-tied haze of lust. I focused on those stupid socks and willed myself to come up with a cutting insult, but this fucker smelled amazing and looked like he’d walked out of a high-end suit catalog.

I swear to the gods if he took off his jacket and rolled up that crisp white shirt to show off his muscular forearms, I was going to throw myself at him, à la Scarlett O’Hara style, damn the consequences.

“Moira?”

One of Ethan Flint’s dark eyebrows rose. Shit. I’d been silent for too long. Why did all of my wit dry up and turn to ash the moment he turned those midnight eyes on me?

I was witty, dammit. I could make a grown man cry with my cutting diatribes and vicious wordplay.

It took years of practice to hone my words into sharp daggers, and I usually had to save most of my insults for when I was out of earshot of my BFF Evie.

So when I got to use one, I made sure it was a good one.

And yet, when Ethan came around, I was an internal puddle of goo.

“Why are you here?” Not the most cutting of responses, but the only one I could come up with without staring at him like the dolt I currently was.

A smile played at the edge of his lips. “Merely checking to see how you’re settling in.” He adjusted his watch on his tanned wrist.

Not many men wore watches these days. Not many men were like Ethan these days. Tall, strong, rugged…

If I could punch myself in the face right now, I would.

“I’m fine.”

I was most assuredly not fine. Eight months ago, all hell had broken loose on Rowan’s territory, and I’d watched the man sitting before me die. Not in a metaphorical sense, either. I’d watched a horror show rise up from the earth and tear him apart.

And not only him. I’d watched every single one of the Lords die. Caelan, Thorvin, Ben, Soren, with whom I had my own messed-up history, Rowan, and Ethan here, looking like a total damn snack.

Before that super fucked up period in my history, Ethan was trying to get me to live on his territory for a little while. I’d been resistant, softening only a little when he agreed to do whatever I wanted, provided I went.

Watching him die had shaken something loose inside me. Even knowing it was a mistake, when Fee resurrected him, and I saw him returning to the Ethan I knew, I told him I’d go as soon as we had a contract in place.

And I had.

And now my ass was sitting here designated as the go-between for the fae and Lords for any magical problems they couldn’t solve on their own.

A few months ago, my happy ass was clipping flowers and making bouquets for men with too much money and not enough sense, while my BFF dealt with some pretty heavy magic problems of her own.

Now I helped Evie out part-time and ran a tea shop across the street from hers.

What did this mean? It meant I was majorly unqualified to be any kind of consultant unless you wanted to know if a peony was good enough for an afternoon tea party bouquet.

Answer: Peonies were good for everything, you uncultured swine.

“When a woman says they are ‘fine,’ it usually means they are anything but.” Ethan leaned forward, a hint of his tantalizing scent teasing my sensitive nose. “Are you displeased with your new quarters? Your job duties? Is there something I can assist you with?”

My eyes narrowed. “You were a complete ass about that contract eight months ago. Why be accommodating now?” Unless there was something…

I snorted. “You want something.”

Ethan’s eyes widened in a gesture of mocking innocence. “I would never.”

“You would always. Spit it out, Lord. What is it?”

He sighed. “I’ve told you a hundred times to call me Ethan.”

“Yes, well, I don’t call my boss by their first name unless they happen to be my BFF.”

His lips thinned. “Must we do this?”

“Do what?” I asked sweetly.

Ethan sat back in his chair and crossed his arms. “I understand you’re still pissed about what happened but—”

Even after all this time, his reaction still stung. I squashed those emotions down and locked them in the box I’d made specifically for Ethan. “But nothing. You wanted boundaries. Here they are. You can’t put that genie back into the bottle, Lord.”

I tossed my pencil down and focused all my attention on him. “Now spill. What do you want?”

Ethan opened his mouth to say something, thought better of it, then snapped it closed.

Probably for the best. He and I got along like oil and water. Shake us up and we mixed in ways where we smothered each other, but leave us alone and we separated, never the twain shall meet.

“Fine,” he growled, bending to fish something out of the leather satchel he carried. He slapped a manila folder on my desk. “One of the Lords has an issue. He’s requested extra assistance.”

I slid the folder over and opened it. A familiar face loomed at me, handsome and mocking.

“I am not working with Soren,” I all but snarled.

Ethan sighed. “You do remember your oath of office, correct?”

“Your oath of office was made up on the spot, and you had me in a position where I could not refuse!” I reminded him, the memories of that day rearing up to haunt me.

I was in this sticky position because of this bastard. Granted, he paid me a king’s ransom, and I didn’t have to work all that much. After Danu and the fae got their asses handed to them and Evie officially took over as the fae queen, things were quiet on that front.

Evie insisted if there were any fae problems, she would address them swiftly. After Danu had killed her mate, Evie went full-throttle goddess and torched every fae left on the battlefield, hundreds, maybe even thousands of fae dead in an instant, turned to dust on the wind.

If they were smart, they would realize Evie was not the person to fuck with. The second she felt the bond go, so had every self-imposed block on her power. My friend changed that day. All of us had.

If someone needed their ass kicked, she no longer gave them the benefit of the doubt. If someone challenged her, she put them down with frightening alacrity. My BFF was over it and would throw down in a heartbeat these days.

I loved this about her, but if Evie thought she frightened people before…

Well, let’s just say, Evie was now the monster under the bed for the fae and every supernatural inside this country.

And I was her right-hand woman.

After all, I loved kicking a little ass, so I was all about this new side to my bestie.

A hint of something flickered through Ethan’s midnight gaze. Couldn’t be guilt. The Lord had no damned soul.

“Regardless, you took the oath and have agreed to look into every issue we need assistance with.”

“Soren is an asshole.”

He inclined his head. “Yes, all the Lords agree with you, but Soren is in a new territory and has called for aid.”

Evie had done the guy a serious solid. Fed up with his former territory, Evie convinced the Lords to cooperate and move Soren from the southern territories up to the lands she’d taken from Donovan.

She hadn’t given him the entire territory, only a part of Montana and slivers of both North and South Dakota.

The former Lord of the South was happy as a pig in shit right now and thought Evie walked on water.

Which…she did, in my opinion, but earning the respect of the Lords was a hard-won battle.

“He barely has anything that could pass for an actual territory.” I shoved the folder away. “Is this really important, or am I wasting my time?”

Ethan’s lips thinned. “Soren is a young Lord, not as young as Rowan, but close. In his tenure, he has never once called for aid. Can you put your differences aside for a little while and assist him?”

He was making me sound like some petty teenager. I leaned forward. “Do you know why Soren and I don’t speak?”

His eyes flickered once more, though his expression remained placid. “I assume you had a relationship. Soren’s reputation is both well-documented and well-deserved.”

A haze of rage obscured my vision for a split second.

How like a man to assume my dislike of another man was because I’d slept with him and he didn’t call me the next morning.

If he knew anything about me, he’d realize that line of thought was laughable.

But I’d seen that flicker in Ethan’s eyes, and I knew firsthand how possessive he could be, even when he and I were not involved.

The thought of me sleeping with Soren enraged him, in his typical stoic, hide all emotion, Ethan way.

“Hmm,” I said thoughtfully. “Soren pushed for a relationship,” I lied through my bright white teeth. “But I was the one who denied him.”

Soren had done no such thing. What Soren had done was proposition me repeatedly until I threatened to knock his pretty white teeth down his throat so far, they’d play Chopsticks on their way down.

I looked down at my hands and wrung them together. “He was distraught, and we argued.”

Also a lie. Soren was disappointed, but we both knew all he had to do was walk out the door and women would find him like bloodhounds.

Shifters could smell lies, but I was a vampire. When I didn’t want to have a heartbeat, I didn’t have one. Ethan’s eyes narrowed. His nostrils flared as he tried to scent the truth, anger flickering in the depths when he realized he couldn’t.

I closed the folder. “Maybe it will be good to see him again. I’m in a much different place than I was back then.”

With a shrug, I sighed. “Alright. You win, Ethan. I’ll call Soren up and have him grab a room at the Keep.” I tilted my head to the side. “Or I suppose there’s no harm in staying with me. He’s been to my apartment before.”

Ethan’s nostrils flared again. “I never smelled him there.”

I chuckled. “You haven’t been back since Danu.”

A tiny flicker of glee filled my soul at the blank mask settling over his face. “I’ve had a few visitors since then.”

I smiled and stood, tucking the file into the left desk drawer. “I’ll contact Soren once I’ve had the chance to read everything over. You can pass that on to your little joint council.”

Ethan tilted his head up, studying me. I wasn’t short, but I’d never loom over the Lord, not even standing while he sat. “No shenanigans, Moira. We can’t afford to screw this up.”

I rolled my eyes. “First of all, I put the nan in shenanigans. Second, it’s Soren.

If any shenanigans occur, they’re probably his fault.

Third, once I take this file, you’re out of this, as agreed upon.

I don’t report to you, nor do I have to give anyone status updates unless you call a council meeting. ”

I was completely autonomous and there to assess the situation, determine whether it was solvable without violence or other forms of harm, and finally provide a full report to the new joint council.

If I could solve the issue while working with the complainant, I would.

Otherwise, all I had to do was hand over my findings, and they would come up with a solution.

This kept the fae and Lords from each other’s throats and accusing the other of hiding potential problems until they spiraled out of control, aka Danu style.

As jobs went, it wasn’t terrible. Basically, I got paid to walk in, examine the issue, and either present my findings or, if it was simple enough, resolve it, then walk away with a fat paycheck.

Working with Soren, though, sent a frisson of nerves down my spine.

We had not parted well. He made me believe he wanted something real, only for me to realize at the last possible moment he was manipulating me to get into my pants.

The moment was forever ingrained in my brain, and I would never forgive him for it.

I rarely trusted anyone, and for him to slide so smoothly underneath my walls told me a hard truth about myself.

I so badly wanted someone to see past all that made me who I was and love me for me.

While Soren had never confessed love, he made me believe he had very real feelings.

For a brief moment in time, he made me feel cherished in a way I never had before.

I only realized it when I confessed my feelings to him, and he hesitated—the briefest, smallest of gestures, but I was part vampire. And then he tried to distract me. I knew men like him. Once upon a time, I ate men like him.

But I couldn’t tell Ethan any of it. For many reasons.

I would never admit aloud the humiliation I felt, followed by the hurt, followed by my tears and wallowing.

Most importantly, the reason neither of us breathed a word about what happened was because the moment I realized what Soren was doing, I tried to kill him.

And came damned close to succeeding.